Casting: Mikkelsen, Leo, Tate, Nelisse

First LawMads Mikkelsen (“Hannibal,” “Casino Royale”) is set to star in Diego Rafecas’ drama “First Law”. Set in the jungles of Argentina, Armand Assante and Adriana Barraza co-star.

Based on a true story, the plot centers on two brothers – one under the wing of a shaman, the other working for a corrupt corporation – who must choose where their loyalties lie when their ancestral home faces destruction. [Source: Deadline]

The FixerMelissa Leo will join James Franco in Ian Olds’ “The Fixer”, a film based on the novel by Bernard Malamud. Filming takes place in California and Morocco this Summer.

Franco plays a war journalist who has been in Afghanistan but suddenly finds himself doing crime reporting in Northern California. [Source: Showbiz 411]

Sylvie’s LoveLarenz Tate (“Rescue Me”) will star in and produce Eugene J. Ashe’s “Sylvie’s Love” which is set against New York’s jazz scene in the late-50s and early-60s.

Tate will play a prodigious Harlem saxophonist in the story of a young woman who struggles to balance her loyalty to her fiance fighting in Korea against her love for the sax man. [Source: Deadline]

The Great Gilly HopkinsSophie Nelisse (“The Book Thief,” “Monsieur Lazhar”) will play the title role in Stephen Herek’s “The Great Gilly Hopkins” for Gemmill Media. Glenn Close, Kathy Bates, Danny Glover and Octavia Spencer co-star in the film which begins shooting April 9th.

An adaptation of “Bridge to Terabithia” author Katherine Paterson’s young adult novel, Nelisse plays a wisecracking, gum-chewing 12-year old is moved from foster home to foster home until she meets her match in the shape of Maime Trotter (Bates). [Source: Screen]